


when you're that downer that brings social justice into a class about advanced necromancy

by katrinawritesthings



Category: SHINee
Genre: Fantasy, Fluff, M/M, taemplants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-21 03:19:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10676610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrinawritesthings/pseuds/katrinawritesthings
Summary: aka mage college au where jong is majoring in the history of the wizarding wars and has to take a shitty necromancy class for credits and taem just likes plantsJonghyun wants to discover all the lies they told him, what the winners of the wars glossed over and changed in the history books, what’s being done today to help right the wrongs of the past. He doesn’t want to learn about the intricate details of how exactly to amass his own skeleton army.tumblr





	when you're that downer that brings social justice into a class about advanced necromancy

"Hey--” **  
**

“Oh--sorry,” Jonghyun squeaks quickly. He snatches his pen away from where it was rolling half a centimeter into the wix next to him’s space. He does his best to smile at them, trying to look both apologetic and insignificant at the same time. He tries to limit his contact with everyone in this class as much as possible. He knows he shouldn’t--this is college, this is where he’s supposed to make new friends and build connections--but he really doesn’t want to be connected to anyone in here. The subject material of the class itself makes him extremely uncomfortable; he doesn’t want to spend a lot of time with people that are learning necromancy for fun.

He hates that he has to be in this class to get credits for his major. He just wants to learn about the dark history of the magical wars that his gradeschool textbooks kept from him when he was young. He wants to discover all the lies they told him, what the winners of the wars glossed over and changed in the history books, what’s being done today to help right the wrongs of the past. He doesn’t want to learn about the intricate details of how exactly to amass his own skeleton army. This history of necromancy class isn’t what he expected at all. The rest of the class doesn’t seem to share his sentiment. When he first started out he gave them all the benefit of the doubt--maybe they were just curious about the dark arts or needed course credits like him--but three months in have really just crushed that hope into the dust.

“Yes, they would be completely loyal to your command, if you performed the ritual correctly,” his professor is telling someone a few rows behind Jonghyun. “Ready to fight for you straight out of the grave, tirelessly, no lungs to be short of breath and no heart to stop them from their task.” Jonghyun winces. That sounds just. Awful.

“But wouldn’t they fall too easily?” someone else asks. A quick glance tells Jonghyun they’re the wix that always wears their hood up. He’s never seen under there, and he doesn’t really want to. They freak him the fuck out. Just imagining what could be under there makes Jonghyun shiver, the natural fire that lives inside of him only a weak pile of embers. “Since they’re just old bones?”

“Well, yeah,” their professor says. “But their charm lies in their _numbers._ ” An almost sinister light twinkles in the professor’s eyes as they speak about a whole army of undead skeleton warriors. Jonghyun shifts uncomfortably in his seat. “Bones are easier charmed than full flesh. You could gather up a whole graveyard to march for you if you wanted to.” Their smile curves up with relish as Jonghyun’s lips twist into more of a frown. A whole fucking graveyard, uprooted for war. He feels his skin crawling at the thought and nibbles his bottom lip too hard as he scribbles some quick notes.

“Could someone else overpower your charm to turn them against you?”

“That all depends on how skilled you are in your magic. Anyone else--” their professor stops and heaves a deep sigh, and when they speak again, their voice has lost all of the macabre delight and is instead dull and tired. “Yes, Taemin?” they ask. Jonghyun turns quickly to the very top row, the very corner seat, where, as usual, Taemin is sitting. Or, hovering. He’s two inches off of the ground just because he can be, with his red hair tied up in a cute bun, his legs crossed, his notebook resting on his knee. Undoubtedly he’s not even taking notes; Jonghyun caught a quick peek in there one time and saw that it was nothing but detailed doodles and sketches of flowers. Taemin’s eyes are focused on the pencil in one hand, his other lifted lazily into their air by his head. He doesn’t look up when he opens his mouth to speak.

“How does this material relate to plants?” he asks, same as usual. The class collectively rolls their eyes, same as usual, and their professor sighs again, same as usual.

“Plants do not have skeletons and therefore are not relevant to this topic,” they say listlessly. Taemin forms his hand into a thumbs up, and then a finger pistol, wiggling it twice in a show of thanks before lowering it back to their notebook. Jonghyun watches him jam his hand into his bag and pull out an eraser a second later. He glances around the rest of the class; with Taemin’s routine question, the spooky mood has dropped considerably. Everyone is mildly annoyed, grumpy, or snapped out of their aesthetic for the moment; now is Jonghyun’s chance. He timidly raises his hand, just high enough to be noticed. The professor turns to him with another resigned sigh. “Yes?” they ask. Jonghyun smiles weakly.

“Um,” he says. “Do you have any recommendations, of pieces written on the morals of taking skeletons from their graves, in regards to the concepts of graverobbing, and,” he checks his notes quickly, “desecration of family property, and consent or lack thereof of the dead, and the history of murdered skeletons being turned against their own forces in the wars? Preferably, by, um, ghosts? Maybe?” It’s a struggle to keep his voice from wavering. He can feel the judging stares from the rest of his classmates in the back of his head. He can’t believe they make him feel fucking guilty for respecting the dead, but that’s what this whole class experience has been for him so far. It’s not anything new.

“Yes, Jonghyun,” the professor sighs heavily. “Email me after class.”

“Okay,” Jonghyun says quickly, and ducks his head to pretend to scribble something down in his notebook so people will stop paying attention to him. The rest of the class passes quickly; no one feels very dark anymore and it’s just some general questions on the steps for the ritual and the usual essay assignment due in two weeks. Jonghyun has his stuff packed and ready to go as soon as humanly possible.

The exact moment that class gets out Jonghyun is out of his seat, rounding the corner of the stairs quickly. He has the seat closest to the door, but he still can never leave this class fast enough. He’s almost at the door when suddenly a pair of shoes are in front of him; by the time it takes him to get extremely confused by that, they’ve lowered slowly to the ground and Taemin is there instead.

“Hey,” he says brightly. Jonghyun blinks at him, bewildered. He glances up at the top of the steps where Taemin was, like, half a minute ago, and then to Taemin now, right in front of him. Huh. He must jump that railing every day and just float down, the same way he tugs himself up when class starts instead of just climbing the stairs. Jonghyun suddenly realizes that he only has the second closest seat to the door and gets a little jealous.

“Uh,” he says when he realizes that Taemin is waiting for him to reply. The rest of the class starts filing out next to him and he squishes himself more to the wall to get out of their way. “Hi.” He’s never really looked at Taemin up close before, but now that he is, he can see that the mage is just… really pretty. So, so pretty. Jonghyun thinks he could get lost in those deep brown eyes. Taemin flashes him a wide smile, so at ease in this class, and hikes his bag more over his shoulder.

“I was wondering,” he says, “would you maybe wanna go out with me sometime? Like, for a milkshake or something?” His free hand opens and closes at his side, the only sign that he’s not as confident as he’s pretending to be. Jonghyun is glad he caught it. Otherwise he probably would have blushed out of the classroom without answering. Instead, he sticks his hands into his hoodie pocket to hide his own nervous twiddling fingers.

“Like, um,” he says. “Like a date?” He’s not used to being asked out like this. Usually it’s the other way around, and usually he’s relaxed at a party and not flustered from an unsettling discussion on warrior skeletons. Taemin nods eagerly.

“I figured we could bond over being the only two in here that aren’t interested in taking over the world with an undead army,” he shrugs. “And I think you’re cute.”

“Oh, frick,” Jonghyun whispers. He can’t handle being complimented like this when he’s already all emotional. He just counts himself lucky that the fire in him has never reacted to his embarrassment. He wouldn’t want to accidentally set his date on fire before he even gets his number. “Um,” he says. “I’m not. This isn’t what I’m, um. Normally like,” he mumbles. Normally he’s loud and cocky and big, not small and scared and trying to disappear. “I’m not, like, shy and quiet and shit.” He feels like he needs to let Taemin know so if this date does actually happen he won’t be surprised at how different Jonghyun is when he’s comfortable. Taemin kind of just shrugs.

“Well, then, I’d like to get to know the real you,” he says simply.

“Oh,” Jonghyun says. He can’t really think of something to say in reply to that. Taemin is just so… earnest. Sincere. Jonghyun doesn’t think his confidant party persona is the “real” him either, but he doesn’t want to put out the lights in Taemin’s eyes with that bit of information. He said it so easily, like honesty is that natural for him, like he’s just used to saying what he thinks. Jonghyun likes that.

“I have an organic healing class after this,” Taemin says when Jonghyun stays silent, a little amused quirk to the corner of his lips. “But after I usually grab a milkshake at the place across from the library. Or I’m usually there, like, all morning on Thursdays before herbology. If you wanted to meet up for a little bit?” He leaves it as a question; Jonghyun finally feels his face doing the smiling thing like it should be when cute boys talk to him.

“Um, yeah, I could be there Thursday morning,” he says. He has papers to write tonight, but Thursdays are always free for him. “Can I get your number?” he asks, feeling up his pocket for his phone. Taemin nods and does the same; they exchange them and type in each other’s numbers quickly. Taemin’s phone has a cute lily flower case on it and a gentle animated grass background. He adds that to the list of things that imply that maybe Taemin kind of has a little bit of a thing for plants as he hands it back.

“Okay, great,” Taemin says. He flashes Jonghyun another bright smile as he stuffs his phone back into his pocket. “See you Thursday.” With that, he rises a few inches off the ground; Jonghyun blinks, startled for a second, before he remembers that Taemin can levitate. Taemin grins like he loves confusing people like that and lifts his hand in a wave, turning and floating out of the classroom with a grace that not many young flyers have. Jonghyun smiles to himself, heading out of the class and to his normal mid afternoon coffee break. When he looks at the new contact on his phone, he sees that Taemin put a little flower next to his name.


End file.
